ClaimsPeople

Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal and Palantir Technologies and founded Founders Fund.

673 claims collected, 107 researched, 55 resolved. Report of 30 October 2026, method 0.1.0+3e03e2df.

Scores by kind of claim

Each kind of claim is scored on its own, out of 100: the share that held up, with the range it likely falls in. Fewer resolved claims give a wider range.

  • Factual claims

    Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

    71 64 78

    Medium confidence, 55 factual claims resolved. From 11 documents, 2007 to 2026; 15 documents sampled from 29 candidates found.

    Not scored: 24 unresolvable, 1 checkable only against their own records.

    See the factual claims

  • Predictions

    Statements about events outside the person's control, checked once they fell due: did they come true?

    Insufficient record: 0 predictions resolved, 5 needed for a score.

    Not scored: 23 unresolvable. 4 more fall due later.

    Does not yet allow for how likely each prediction was when made.

    See the predictions

All types combined: 71 (likely 64 to 78, medium confidence), from 55 claims: 55 factual claims. It mixes kinds of claim in different proportions for different people, so compare people kind by kind.

Peter Thiel's claims

673 claims · page 6 of 7

673 claims, sorted by newest said. Choose a claim to read it in full.
VerdictKindSaidClaimTopic
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 I believe that politics is way too intense. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 The limitation of the Internet is that these new worlds are virtual and that any escape may be more imaginary than real. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Mostly true Factual 13 Apr 2009 Thiel has focused his efforts as entrepreneur and investor on new technologies, notably the Internet, that may create a new space for freedom. Factual · 13 Apr 2009 Technology
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 It is a realistic risk, and for this reason I eagerly support this initiative. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are… Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 But in a broader sense we did not achieve all that much for all the effort expended. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 For this reason, all of us must wish Patri Friedman the very best in his extraordinary experiment. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 Those who have argued for free markets have been screaming into a hurricane. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not yet due Prediction 13 Apr 2009 The libertarian future of classic science fiction, as in Heinlein, will not happen before the second half of the 21st century. Prediction · 13 Apr 2009 Other global risks
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 In hindsight, we were preaching mainly to the choir Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: to authentic human freedom as a precondition for the highest good. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 Politics gets people angry, destroys relationships, and polarizes peoples’ vision Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 Unlike the world of politics, in the world of technology the choices of individuals may still be paramount. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 A better metaphor is that we are in a deadly race between politics and technology. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 Because there are no truly free places left in our world, I suspect that the mode for escape must involve some sort of new and hitherto… Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives, and the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Mostly true Factual 13 Apr 2009 The 2008-09 financial crisis was caused by too much debt and leverage, facilitated by a government that insured against moral hazards, and the response involves more debt, leverage and government. Factual · 13 Apr 2009 Economics and markets
Mostly true Factual 13 Apr 2009 As a Stanford undergraduate, Thiel started a student newspaper that he says scored some limited victories, most notably in undoing speech codes instituted by the university. Factual · 13 Apr 2009 Their own work or organisation
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 I must confess that over the last two decades, I have changed radically on the question of how to achieve these goals. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 The future of technology is not pre-determined, and we must resist the temptation of technological utopianism Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Unresolvable Factual 13 Apr 2009 In America, people are imprisoned for using even very mild drugs, tortured by the government, and forced to bail out reckless financial companies. Factual · 13 Apr 2009 Philosophy, ethics and society
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 From my vantage point, the technology involved is more tentative than the Internet, but much more realistic than space travel. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 It would be absurd to suggest that women’s votes will be taken away or that this would solve the political problems that vex us. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 While I don’t think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 Voting is not under siege in America, but many other rights are. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Unresolvable Prediction 13 Apr 2009 Enough people will live on seasteads (settlements on the oceans). Prediction · 13 Apr 2009 Other
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 The higher one’s IQ, the more pessimistic one became about free-market politics — capitalism simply is not that popular with the crowd. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Mixed Factual 13 Apr 2009 In the late 1990s, PayPal's founding vision centered on creating a new world currency free from all government control and dilution. Factual · 13 Apr 2009 Economics and markets
Not checkable Not checkable 13 Apr 2009 That’s probably why, in the past, libertarians have made little progress in the political sphere. Not checkable · 13 Apr 2009
Unresolvable Factual 13 Apr 2009 The last economic depression in the United States that did not result in massive government intervention was the collapse of 1920-21. Factual · 13 Apr 2009 Economics and markets
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 An outright declaration of war against Islam would be unthinkable; Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 America had proved so successful in shaping the modern world that most Americans could no longer recognize the originality and strangeness… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 A dangerous dynamic lurks in Schmitt’s division of the world into friends and enemies. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 At first sight, Strauss seems to offer such a moderate middle course, but his path too is fraught with peril. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 but none of this will matter if we are all dead in the short run. Not checkable · 2007
Unresolvable Factual 2007 The postwar wealth transfer apparatus never worked as advertised, and Western wealth was largely squandered on white elephant projects. Factual · 2007 Economics and markets
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 In practice, this dialectic was never simply or even primarily intellectual. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 the entire political and military framework of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and indeed of the modern age, with its emphasis on… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Nevertheless, the necessity of mimesis does not render it unproblematic. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Unchecked philosophizing poses great risks to philosophers (as well as the cities they inhabit), as in even the most liberal or open-minded… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Revolutionary America was haunted by the fear of religious war and the fanatical imposition of virtue on the entire state. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Still, there are more possibilities for action than first appear, precisely because there are more domains than those enumerated by the… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori had been an important part of the old tradition; henceforth, it would be seen as nothing more than an… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Indeed, one may wonder whether any sort of politics will remain possible for the exceptional generation that has learned the truth of human… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 The great importance of strong property rights would seem to force us to ask some hard questions about the origins of the property itself. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 On the other hand, we have a return to the older tradition, but that return is fraught with far too much violence. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 then the account of politics that pretends they do not exist needs to be reexamined. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 For this reason, the decisive difference between Girard and Strauss (or Nietzsche) centers on the question of historicism. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 But no representation of reality ever is the same as reality, and one must never lose sight of the larger framework within which the… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Because humanity would not exist without imitation, one cannot say that there is something wrong with imitation per se Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 At the extremes, even the distinction between violence inflicted on oneself and violence inflicted on other people is in the process of… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Such an extreme situation is represented by war. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Those who acquired their property through violence will not be capable of growing their fortunes, and in time will possess only a small and… Not checkable · 2007
Mixed Factual 2007 René Girard, like Schmitt and Strauss, believes there is a disturbing truth about the city and humanity, and that the Enlightenment whitewashed away the issue of human violence. Factual · 2007 Philosophy, ethics and society
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 An account of politics that speaks only of the smooth functioning of the machinery of government is incomplete, and one also must consider… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 It is therefore best for such questions to be eliminated or obscured. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 The Christian statesman or stateswoman must diverge from the teachings of Strauss in one decisive respect. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Because the smooth functioning of human culture depended on a lack of understanding of this truth of human culture, the archaic rituals… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 twenty-first century started with a bang on September 11, 2001. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 In spite of the inspiring sweep of the Straussian project, there remains a nagging suspicion that perhaps it is missing something… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Neither side ever could win decisively, but in the long term, each side could decisively discredit the other Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 On a theoretical level, the older tradition consisted of two radically incompatible streams symbolized by Athens and Jerusalem. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 In this way, Strauss’s recovery of the permanent problems paradoxically might make their resolution all the more difficult. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Instead of the United Nations, filled with interminable and inconclusive parliamentary debates that resemble Shakespearean tales told by… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 the singular example of bin Laden and his followers has rendered incomplete the economically motivated political thought that has dominated… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Girard, in turn, would counter that salvation is no longer to be found in philosophical reticence, because there will come a day when there… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 if American liberalism is decisively incomplete, then its critique is no longer quite so decisive. Not checkable · 2007
Unresolvable Prediction 2007 The cumulative decisions made in close cases between violence and peace may determine the destiny of the postmodern world. Prediction · 2007 Philosophy, ethics and society
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 On the one hand, we have the newer project of the Enlightenment, which never became comprehensive on a global scale, and perhaps always… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Today, mere self-preservation forces all of us to look at the world anew, to think strange new thoughts, and thereby to awaken from that… Not checkable · 2007
Unresolvable Factual 2007 After September 11, serious people could publicly raise the issue of unilateralism, and of institutions providing cover for it, for the first time since 1945. Factual · 2007 Other global risks
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Because Girard rightly views this account as preposterous, he considers the social contract to be the fundamental lie of the Enlightenment Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 America’s founders enjoyed a freedom of action far surpassing that of America’s subsequent politicians. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 there is no guarantee that the political itself will survive. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 The non-Western world had not yet seen the Peace of Westphalia. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Schmitt would not counsel reasoned half-measures. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 how do we know that the property was acquired justly in the first place? Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 The incredibly drastic solutions favored by Schmitt in his dark musings have become impossible after 1945, in a world of nuclear weapons… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 If there is something prophetic about Girard's announcement of the founding murder, then Strauss might note that his situation also… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 one must choose one’s enemies well, for one will soon be just like them. Not checkable · 2007
Mixed Factual 2007 In Girard's view, the Judeo-Western revelation may be slow because humans do not wish to hear its message, but it is not reversible. Factual · 2007 Philosophy, ethics and society
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Ex ante, wealth transfers made a certain amount of sense in the late 1940s. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 a nation whose conception owed so much to Locke that one exaggerates only slightly to describe him as its definitive founder. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 By contrast, on the Western side (if it can even be called a side), there is great confusion over what the fighting is for, and why there… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 Overnight, the fundamentalist civil rights mania of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which spoke in the language of inviolable… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 And so, in determining the correct mixture of violence and peace, the Christian statesman or stateswoman would be wise, in every close… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 As recent events have illustrated vividly, the real problem with the theory goes much deeper. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 There can be no real accommodation with the Enlightenment, since so many of its easy bromides have become deadly falsehoods in our time. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 There can be no return to the archaic world or even to the robust conception of the political envisioned by Carl Schmitt. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 The saint knew that the opposite had been true of Socrates, who left us no example of weeping, but left us example of laughter. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 For the modern world, the death of God was followed by the disappearance of the question of human nature. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 For Strauss as for Nietzsche, the truth of mimesis and of the founding murder is so shocking that most people, in all times and places… Not checkable · 2007
Unresolvable Factual 2007 For every jihadist killed after September 11, about ten more arose to seek martyrdom. Factual · 2007 Other global risks
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 There are no short cuts in Strauss. Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 The price of abandoning oneself to such an artificial representation is always too high, because the decisions that are avoided are always… Not checkable · 2007
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 The fact that these things are hidden does not mean that they do not exist or that they are unknowable. Not checkable · 2007
Unresolvable Prediction 2007 The modern age will not be permanent and will ultimately give way to something very different. Prediction · 2007 Philosophy, ethics and society
Not checkable Not checkable 2007 The most direct method for comprehending a world in which not all human beings are homo economicus would therefore appear to involve a… Not checkable · 2007
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Peter Thiel

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“Because Girard rightly views this account as preposterous, he considers the social contract to be the fundamental lie of the Enlightenment”

Peter Thiel 2007 The Straussian Moment (gwern.net (PDF))

Because Girard rightly views this account as preposterous, he considers the social contract to be the fundamental lie of the Enlightenment

Not checkable An opinion, value judgement or statement with nothing to check.

Cite this claim

Peter Thiel, “Because Girard rightly views this account as preposterous, he considers the social contract to be the fundamental lie of the Enlightenment” (said 2007). Verdict: not checkable. Reliability API, claim c_4b17c2c19155, method 0.1.0+3e03e2df. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_4b17c2c19155

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